Physical Address
Indirizzo: Via Mario Greco 60, Buttigliera Alta, 10090, Torino, Italy
Larbaoui reading President Tebboune’s speech.
Representing the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the Prime Minister, Nadir Larbaoui, has been in Ghana since Saturday to participate in the 6th biannual meeting between the African Union (AU), the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the Regional Mechanisms, scheduled in the capital Accra.
According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s office, “this high-level meeting will be devoted to strengthening coordination and cooperation between the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities and the Regional Mechanisms in different areas with a view to supporting efforts to maintain peace and security, and to accelerate the pace of development and economic integration at the continental level.”
In this regard, it is worth noting that for several decades, integration has been recognized as an essential element of the development of the African continent. Article 3 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU) defines the key objectives, including the acceleration of the political and socio-economic integration of the continent and the promotion of sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels, as well as the integration of African economies.
In this regard, it should be noted that the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are regional groupings of African states and are the pillars of the AU. All were established before the launch of the AU, developed individually and have different roles and structures.
The RECs aim to facilitate regional economic integration between members of each region and within the larger African Economic Community (AEC), established under the Abuja Treaty (1991). This treaty, which came into force in 1994, aims to create an African common market using the RECs as its building blocks.
Currently, the AU recognises eight RECs, namely the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN–SAD), the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and finally the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
As a reminder, and in order to address the gaps in the African integration agenda, in July 2019, the African Union organized in Niamey, Niger, the first biannual coordination meeting of the AU and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), with the aim of advancing the integration agenda.
The biannual coordination meeting provided an opportunity to reflect on the status of African integration and to define a clear division of labour and effective collaboration between the African Union, RECs, Regional Mechanisms and the 55 Member States of the African Union and other continental institutions, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity.
Africa’s development plan of action, Agenda 2063, places emphasis on monitoring and evaluation to achieve the goals effectively and efficiently. The AU acknowledges that the plans and programmes it has developed over the years have not produced the expected results for a number of reasons, including monitoring and evaluation tools to track actions taken, identify gaps and propose corrective measures in terms of programming, implementation and financing.
In this regard, the AUC Department of Economic Affairs has developed the African Multidimensional Regional Integration Index (AMRII) as a tool for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of integration programmes.
AMRII facilitates the monitoring and evaluation of RECs in line with the implementation of the integration agenda. The new index provides a framework for assessing the achievements of RECs against the objectives and milestones of integration initiatives.